roman holiday

hello everyone!

late on wednesday night, i arrived back from rome to a very rainy, very cold newcastle. although truth be told, rome was not that unrainy & warm itself!

i have a hallowe'en party tomorrow (you're damn right i put the apostrophe in!), so i wanted to post the rome pictures first, so i didn't get all muddled up.

also, regarding that giveaway i've been failing to do for so long, i have had a cracking idea for what to do for it, which i shall definitely be posting on in the next two weeks. if not, you can all have my guts for garters - and what attractive garters they shall be!

disturbing imagery over, now for some less disturbing images (oh yes, i can link things with the best of them);

this was some pretty arch thing by the colosseum. i'll be honest, i don't know what half these buildings are. rome is chock full of ruins you know! i mean, state the obvious, but it really is! you literally cannot take 5 steps without another one popping into view.

i actually know what this building is! it's a monument to the "father of italy", victorini or something along those lines. anyway, it's a huuuuge building made of white marble & i think part of it is a museum/art gallery. i say i think because i visited a vincent van gogh exhibition while i was in rome & i'm fairly sure it was in this building, but i'm becoming less & less sure of that even as i type! the exhibition was incredible, i could just stare at his paintings for hours. luckily starry night wasn't there or i would have had to be dragged out the building!

edit; yeah, so i was wrong. paha, i am such a historical knowledge failure! the van gogh exhibition was in a completely different place, however i do have a valid reason for being confused as this white building was covered in posters for the exhibition.

trevy fountain, of course.

there's a really dorky photo of me throwing a coin over my shoulder here, which i don't think even went in!

buildings in rome are just. so. pretty.

the colosseum, seen from our open-top bus!

the hotel we stayed in was in walking distance from here, although we couldn't actually see it from there which was a bit of a bummer.



i was pretty tired the first day we arrived, so while we waited for my cousin etd to arrive, i did a bit of light reading on our cute little balcony. i don't know if you can see the title, but what i was reading was lolita by vladimir nabokov - which i have now finished.

been listening

- scheduled post -

i am away until 27th of october

*

as i am a bit of a fool, i forgot to mention i bought some records at the vintage fair when i posted about it! *smacks self in face*

for christmas this year, i have asked my dad for a record player & in anticipation of this i have relapsed to my obsessive record collecting days.

at the fair, emily gave me this vinyl rack for free as a thank you for helping out with her dolls & molls stall, & her husband martin sold me a roy orbison collection & a blondie single for only £5 together - which is pretty good considering their condition! i've decided to use the rack to keep all my records in good condition, it's only supposed to be for EPs & singles but considering i only have two of those i thought it would look a little empty without all my LPs!

i spent the day organising my records - alphabetically by artist, then by date of album (yes, i know i am a complete & utter nerd, but i do only have about twelve of them!) - and finally watching my laura marling dvd, which was so lovely! it's called laura marling & friends, basically it's a backstage film of an evening of performances by laura & other folk lovelies (who just happen to be her friends, natch) at the royal festival hall.

peggy sue - a punk/folk trio who played songs with an accordion. sounds do wrong, but oh my it was brilliant.

laura herself in some rather smashing spectacles.

marcus mumford & laura marling.

johnny flynn - great classical folk guitarist, a friend of mine recently burned me a cd of his two albums & they are excellent.

rainy day, dream away

- scheduled post -

i will be away until 27th of october

*

as the nights are getting darker, & the rainclouds are rolling in, sadly the time has come to start layering up.

(edit: wait, did i say sadly? what a fool i am, i adore winter clothing! sure, it's not actually all that different from my summery wardrobe, but i certainly feel more comfortable & it means i don't have to enter into the leggings vs tights vs bare legs debate)

with that in mind, for a while now i've been looking into buying more wintery clothing. block colour tights, thicker cardigans, interesting jumpers, cute yet functional gloves. top of my wishlist was, of course, a new winter coat. now, i'm not one of those people who needs a new season coat, just simply something lovely that will keep me warm for many years to come.

i am, quite possibly, irrevocably in love with this coat.

mother bought it for me from miss selfridge (she, lovely woman that she is, pays for all my "essentials" clothingwise), as it is just amazing. it is rather warm too, & definitely waterproof - this i know as it has already been called upon to prove itself weatherwise this year!

i saw this on the miss selfridge website while i was searching for a good coat, & initially i was a bit put off by its puffball skirt. normally that is the kind of style i would avoid like a drunken mancunian with a strange hairdo, but on closer inspection that weird drunkard turned out to be morrissey, & i actually love the puffball thing on this skirt!

it has a slight military feel with the buttons on the front, but is still pretty darn feminine with the frills, bow and its decidedly girly dusky pink colour. there are frills in the back too, which i tried to get a picture of but the light in my room was being very odd, & as i don't have a tripod i have a limited number of places to precariously prop rest my camera.

shakespeare's sister

so, i've bought a fair few things lately & felt it was time to inform you all (:

some brass buttons i bought at an incredible flea market in spain, i think they were about 2 euros.

i can't decide what to do with them, i've thought about either sewing them onto a cardigan or making them into jewellery.

another purchase from spain! i have a bit of a penchant for hairbands, & at only 3 euros it seemed fairly reasonable!

that is the end of my purchases from spain, unfortunately we didn't get out & about much so i didn't have a huge opportunity to buy things.

in my past few posts, i've talked about working at a vintage fair that came to my hometown recently. it was a really lovely fair, & although i didn't get a chance to buy the things that were on my wishlist, i bought some lovely things all the same!

i bought this brooch from the dolls & molls stall i was working on for my mum's birthday. my mum is really into 50s & 60s fashion, & she's just finished a pattern-cutting course at a local college which she really loved. she's bought a few vintage patterns off ebay recently, & freakishly this exactly matches the picture from the front of one of them!

somehow in the past few months, i have developed a complete scarf obsession! anyway, i bought these two for £4 together. the blue one has the cuuutest palette pattern!

there weren't as many craft stalls as there normally are at these fairs, which i was a bit disappointed at because i always love browsing them - even if i don't buy anything. there was only one this time, which was actually pretty expensive in my opinion.

i bought an old postcard for £1 (expensive, right?) & some assorted buttons for £3. i was still a bit miffed at how expensive this was, especially when the woman on the stall tried to charge me a fiver for them. one + three is clearly not five, dear.

the postcard had a little message & address on the back written in a lovely script, which is part of the reason i bought them! i know some people might think it's a bit weird to buy what is essentially someone else's memories, but i think it's kind of sad that those things have been thrown out & don't have a home any more.
*

my friend is having a hallowe'en party next saturday (as october 31st itself rather unconveniently falls on a saturday) & i can't quite decide what to go as. i'm thinking either david bowie, alex from a clockwork orange or morrissey. although i feel like morrissey might be a bit dull, & i don't really have the hair for it. i really want to go as something a bit unusual, but i can't decide! if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to make them.
*
i can't remember if i mentioned that i'm off to rome on sunday with my family, so i might schedule a post or two!
x

another saturday night

hello there (:

looks like i'm getting back into the posting more often thing, rejoice!

last sunday was my mother's birthday (the date was 10/10/10, which i thought was just a little bit awesome), but as i wasn't staying with her then we only got to celebrate this weekend. some family stayed for the weekend, & we went for a bit of a fancy meal - for which i wore this;

sorry about my slightly silly pose, but i had limited time in which to get ready. mother wanted to get drunk so we had to walk to the restaurant, which was made even more hilarious by my aunt limping along with a sprained ankle. i realise after writing it that it sounds a bit cruel, but she was full on quasimodo-ing it down the road on purpose!

dress - ebay, lace shorts (underneath) - ebay, tights - newcastle vintage fair, necklace - brooch from a car boot sale, hairband - lace from the grainger market.

i bought these tights from the newcastle vintage market two weeks ago, & i really do quite like them. they were only £6 which i think is fairly reasonable considered a similar pair would be about £15. in case you can't tell, they are white with a blue flowery design. i also bought a few more things at the fair, which i'll post about in a few days or two.

i'm quite pleased with myself about this outfit actually, it's all unconventionally bought, for want of a better phrase!

i'm off to rome for a few days on sunday, so i shall schedule a post (or possibly two) for my absence & take lots of photographs for my return!

hang the blessed dj

my cameraaa is fixed! yay! (:

now normal posting can resume! & i can get on with that giveaway i haven't mentioned for a while (which i have had a few ideas for).

a couple of weeks ago, i bought some shorts from ebay that i may be utterly in love with. they're white lacey shorts for wearing under clothes that may be slightly indecent otherwise, or just as another layer. basically, it's a different take on wearing a petticoat or a slip underneath a skirt, which i think is really quite awesome! i only saw them in black on the highstreet, so i'm quite pleased i turned to ebay to find the white ones, as black just would not go with anything in my wardrobe.

um, yeah. so i couldn't decide which pictures to put up here as i really wasn't loving the upper half of the outfit today, so here are my two favourite(ish) ways to wear the shorts.

flowery shorts - liberty at topshop, tights - river island

skirt - gift from friends

hooray for almost identical poses! i'm very sorry that you can see how messy my room is, but i quite like having the wardrobe pictures behind me.

i shall be updating a bit more regularly now that i have the camera back, eeeep!

personal statement

hello there people, it's been a while hasn't it? remember that camera situation i kept waffling on about? well, it is still unresolved. bah. i'm on the verge of mass homicide with this camera-fixy company, i tell you. here are some thoroughly random & probably uninteresting facts about the events from my life since i've been away.

i bought the john lennon birthday issue of Q magazine (yes, i buy magazines aimed at men, do not adjust your screen) which is the loooooveliest thing ever. it was a damn good issue, even if there was too much yoko & not enough paul. oh, and bono from u2's handwriting is abysmal.

fyi, it's john's birthday this saturday so if you follow me on tumblr or twitter be prepared for some serious hyperbole about that man.

oh oh oh! aaand on sunday, i'm going to be helping out at the afforable vintage fair in newcastle for dolls & molls, which should be pretty lovely! if you're in the area, come check it out, it's always really good - even just to have a look around! i don't have a definite plan for what i'm going to look for, but i'd like to get a nice cardigan or jumper as they're a bit lacking in my wardrobe. i'm also looking out for a nice cross body bag for school, & of course the jewellery is always work a look!

sorry for such a short post this time, i hope to make up for it soon with all the giveaway shebang. adieu mes enfants! (: